I’m staring at this pair of Neutron Blasters and failing to see what purpose the Heavy version could possibly have.
Where it differs from the Limited version (which is in the market for about a fifth of the cost), it’s worse, in every single way. It also has identical skill requirements.
So, I guess I must be missing something?
Weapons haven’t been subject to tiercide yet, so higher meta is effectively always better. You’re comparing meta 0 to meta 2. Meta 0 should basically never be used, no matter the module. The meta 0 version’s only use is to be upgraded into a tech 2 or faction module.
Ah OK. I (mistakenly) thought that the higher Meta-level stuff was meant to have higher skill reqts or cost, by way of balancing.
Like Anna said, weapons still need tiericide so they don’t follow the logic of other meta modules yet.
When it comes to T1 modules their main purpose is to be turned into T2 modules. Meta modules drop as loot from NPCs and are pretty much always better than T1, so the only benefit of fitting T1 over meta is that T1 can be made if you have a blueprint ready for easy reliable supply, but often meta modules are cheaper and better.
I’ll throw in one other observation: the various Meta 2 weapons drop from mission an rat wrecks while the basic Meta 0 parts are manufactured.
At best, the Meta 0 part cost represents the manufacturing material cost (ignoring numptyisms).
The Meta 2 price is driven be the typical over supply of those parts that makes them cheap - their cost is fractal “bothered looting my wrecks for a bit of income”.
As others will say, the Limited bit is just a name, some modules have had the names changed to more accurately reflect why they are better, this Limited label is old legacy, not got around to it yet.
So, why do those Meta 0 modules sell? They are used in manufacturing T2 modules (in this case the Heavy Neutron Blaster II turret) which are a much better weapon.
as a general note, the market prices in EVE are barely reflecting an items power or potency, but rather an items rarity or production costs.
While it is true that for some or even most item classes that more powerful versions are more expensive, that isn’t because they are more powerful, it is because the more powerful versions are found much less often (deadspace- , officer items) or require more expensive materials to build.
Or the prices go up by a lot because someone bought all of them from the market (sometimes intentionally), so none or only a few are available - but people still want to buy them, so they are willing to pay a lot more, so they are offered for a lot more.
Thanks, folks.
I hadn’t grasped that T1 (or Meta 0) modules can be upgraded to T2 and the higher Meta levels can’t.
I googled “tiericide” and learned that this process started in 2012 (!!), in a dev announcment from 2020 listing the remaining modules to be reviewed. Not a quick process, I now realise 
T1 to T2 isn’t quite “an upgrade”, it’s more T1 module is part of the build materials for a T2 component. You can’t just “click to upgrade”.
A common approach players have is to fit T2 parts as soon as they have the skills/funds - they have significant benefits over T1 parts, as well as more demanding fitting requirements.
As for Meta levels, the obligatory link to the Eve University article.
